DriveCar brand Audi has found a surprising new destination for used batteries for its electric cars. Together with the Indian start-up Nunam, the company hangs old batteries in rickshaws in India, making them a much cleaner alternative to existing vehicles.
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Nunam is a start-up that Audi’s Environmental Foundation has been investing in since 2019. The company has started a project together with Audi in which batteries from test samples of its electric E-tron models are given a second life in rickshaws converted to EV. Nunam has developed three e-rickshaws, which will hit the road in India in early 2023.
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The three electric rickshaws are made available to a non-profit organization, which in turn makes the electric tricycles available to women who can use them to – for example – drive their merchandise to the local market. According to Nunam, used batteries can help to make people in difficult living conditions economically independent. In particular, in vehicles with a light engine and a relatively low weight, used batteries could still provide excellent service, the start-up says.
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The electric rickshaws are not charged via the regular Indian electricity network, which according to Audi is mainly powered by coal, but at charging stations that use solar energy. Nunam envisions a future in which the batteries can also be used in a light vehicle after their second life, for example to provide local LED lighting with power.
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“We want to get the most out of the batteries before they have to be recycled,” said Prodip Chatterjee, co-founder of Nunam. It is not yet clear whether there are plans to market the electric rickshaws on a larger scale or to put the batteries in other vehicles.
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